Global concern
“FGM is therefore of global concern,” the UN website states. In Russia, it happens as well, but there are no statistics to know how often. The media has been reporting testimonies from Dagestan and Ingushetia. In the latter one, at the end of January, the first FGM-related criminal case in Russia ended up in a fine for a doctor who performed the procedure on a nine-year-old girl. However, the convicted woman was cleared of the punishment because the statute of limitations had expired. As the girl’s relative told RT Russian, the mother didn’t know about the procedure, as it was secretly done by the girl’s father and his new wife. According to her words, after the girl received a wound on the genitalia, she suffered from fever, bleeding, and shock. A medical examination concluded that the injury was a result of a ‘ritual circumcision’. The doctor was accused of causing ‘minor damage’ to the girl’s health.
In 2016, there was an initiative in the Russian parliament to introduce criminal punishment for FGM. The project is yet to turn into a law. A massive social discussion on the matter was triggered by a report composed by Stichting Justice Initiative (SJI), a human right organization recognized as a ‘foreign agent’ by the Russian authorities. The report was dedicated to FGM in Dagestan, and the debate around it was heated even more by the reports about the reaction of one of the Islamic leaders of the North Caucasus. Several media outlets insisted that he had voiced his approval of the practice. However, the cleric clarified that his words had been taken out of context by the journalists and said that the procedure is not ordered by the religion.
Laws not enough
Having a law against FGM, unfortunately, doesn’t mean that the procedure automatically stops. “There are a lot of countries that have legislation regarding FGM, but women are hiding themselves and cutting their girls,” Fatou Mandiang Diatta says. “And it becomes worse, because in case of health complications, they can’t bring a girl to a hospital.”
In her native Senegal, and in Germany, where Diatta lives now, FGM is banned. However, according to the UN data, one in four women aged 15-49 have undergone FGM in Senegal. While in Germany, as of 2020, authorities reported about 68,000 people affected by FGM – an increase by 44% since 2017. The rise in numbers was attributed to greater immigration.
“The problem is that the African communities are not open enough,” Diatta explains. “A mother can tell a girl ‘This is a part of our tradition, we should not talk about it.’ The communities are really very closed. People think ‘We will create a new lobby and make a new law, and it all will stop.’ But sometimes these communities don’t even speak German, they don’t watch the TV, they don’t read newspapers, so how can they know that it is forbidden?”
Sociologist Hilary Burrage also thinks that it’s not enough just to make FGM illegal. “There are always politicians who would say ‘I’m going to do it.’ But they always stop when things become difficult,” she says. “I know some good politicians who want things to stop. I know some lawyers who are really committed, I know teachers and social workers, and medics, but they all are cautious, because it’s difficult.”
Training the young
Diatta says that education is the most important tool. “We do a lot of training in Senegal, we train the women, we train the religious communities, we train children at schools. We give them an opportunity to make their own activities,” she tells RT. Diatta says that the work is bringing some results, as in big cities people change their perception of the tradition. However, in small villages the practice is still going on.
In Germany, Diatta is involved in ‘behavior change activities’: “We train professionals who work with immigrants, we also make a lot of events with the communities. There’s really an emergency to find a way to eradicate it [FGM], because kids who are born here in Germany, sometimes are already cut, in Africa or somewhere abroad.”
Dr. Carolyne Njue, from School of Public Health, University of Technology Sydney, worked for the Population Council, an international organization to end FGM. She says that sometimes the girls from immigrant families go back to their countries of origin and get cut, because in their mindset they have an idea that FGM is a “passage” to adulthood, that it would be a way to be desired by men. So that’s why men also play a big role in stopping FGM – by saying “We don’t want this,” Dr. Njue points out.
In Australia, FGM is officially banned. The first criminal prosecution on the matter in the country was carried out in 2016, and ended up with prison sentences for a retired nurse, a mother of two girls, and a religious leader. According to the Australian government estimations, by 2019 there were 53,000 girls and women born elsewhere but now living in the country, who have undergone FGM.
Pressure from older generations is a huge problem within the communities, Dr. Njue told RT. “People do it because of their parents, or to please their grandparents, who say ‘This is my last request before I die, go and get cut.’ So you want to give them that last respect,” she explains. “The same for young men. When they want to marry a girl, parents ask ‘Has she been cut?’ And if you say ‘No,’ parents reply ‘So we don’t want her.’”
However, Dr. Njue insists that only young women and men may stop the archaic tradition from spreading by deciding which part of their culture they want to keep, and which part to leave behind. “We need to work with girls at schools, have educational programs with the communities, we need to talk about the issues like ‘What does it mean to be a woman?’ ‘What does it mean to be married?’ Dr. Njue says.
“Young people need to have these conversations among themselves, it would help to break this barrier when girls don’t know what they are supposed to do, because they are obeying what they are told to do by their parents or communities.”
The UN aims to stop FGM by 2030. However, while the target is an ambitious one, the experts RT spoke to think it can’t be achieved so fast.
“We can say ‘By 2030, we are going to eradicate FGM’, but the communities have to get involved,” Diatta insists. “Because if they are not involved, nothing will happen.”
By Anastasia Safronova , RT editor
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